Message Formats

The protocol layer defines message formats for Bitcoin P2P protocol communication.

Protocol Variants

Each protocol variant (mainnet, testnet, regtest) has specific message formats and network parameters:

• Magic Bytes: Unique identifier for each network variant
• Message Headers: Standard Bitcoin message header format
• Message Types: version, verack, inv, getdata, tx, block, etc.

Network Parameters

Protocol-specific parameters include:

• Default ports (mainnet: 8333, testnet: 18333, regtest: 18444)
• Genesis block hashes
• Difficulty adjustment intervals
• Block size limits
• Feature activation heights

For detailed protocol specifications, see the blvm-protocol README.

See Also

• Protocol Architecture - Protocol layer design
• Network Protocol - Transport and message handling
• Protocol Overview - Protocol layer introduction
• Protocol Specifications - BIP implementations